County Rulings Uphold Big Tax Increases on Local Mobile-Home Parks

Tuesday

Feb 12, 2013 at 11:41 PM

Residents of several local mobile-home parks were disappointed in their hopes of having monthly rates reduced. Magistrates with the Polk County Value Adjustment Board have denied petitions for new tax assessments by two companies that bought parks in 2011. Lawyers for the companies had argued that the assessments should be reduced.

By GARY WHITETHE LEDGER

LAKELAND ­| Residents of several local mobile-home parks were disappointed in their hopes of having monthly rates reduced.

Magistrates with the Polk County Value Adjustment Board have denied petitions for new tax assessments by two companies that bought parks in 2011. Lawyers for the companies had argued that the assessments should be reduced.

The sales of several mobile-home parks since 2010 triggered new value assessments by the Polk County Property Appraiser's Office, resulting in spikes in the taxable value of many senior communities.

When that happens, owners are entitled to petition for new assessments. Those appeals are handled by the Value Adjustment Board, a quasi-judicial entity overseen by the Clerk of the Circuit Court.

Florida statutes restrict taxable value from rising more than 10 percent a year (with an exception for school taxes) on a mobile-home park unless the park is sold. In those cases, there is no limit on the increase in taxable value.

Under Florida law, mobile-home park owners are allowed to pass along tax increases to residents.

One of the petitions involved Schalamar Creek, an 876-lot community with a golf course just east of Lakeland on U.S. 92. Osprey Links, a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Cos. of Milwaukee, paid $57.7 million for the property in 2011.

An assessment by the Property Appraiser's Office raised the taxable value of Schalamar Creek from $24.9 million to $46.9 million, an 88.4-percent increase. Dan Titus, a longtime resident of Schalamar Creek, said that amounts to about an $31-a-month increase in fees.

The hearing on Schalamar Creek took place Nov. 30 in Bartow. The 22-page record of the hearing is a complex exploration of the three criteria the Property Appraiser's Office uses to determine taxable value: the cost of building a comparable property, sale prices and projected income.

Magistrate Robert Babcock denied all five of ELS' petitions, upholding the county's assessments.

The magistrate's recommendations must be confirmed by the Value Adjustment Board, which meets in March. The board consists of two county commissioners, one school board member and two citizen members.

The hearings on Schalamar Creek and the ELS properties drew overflow audiences of park residents to the County Commission chambers. Dick Gebo, president of Beacon Hill Colony Homeowners Association, said he and many other residents attended.

Under the new assessment, annual fees for Beacon Hill Colony residents rose from $176 to $443 per unit, Gebo said.